The folks at Dr. Bott were kind enough to send us an ifrogz Luxe case for the iPhone 3G to review. We drew straws (virtually) and I won the opportunity to kick the tires, so to speak, and give you my impressions.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of cases on my phones and PDAs; they go in and out of my pocket so often that anything that adds bulk or friction ends up being more of a pain than its worth. That pretty much eliminates any silicone-style cases for my purposes. Thankfully, the Luxe case is made of a hard plastic with a satin finish, providing more grip than a naked iPhone, but not so much that it's a pain to get out of a tight pocket.

The ifrogz Luxe case comes in a number of colors. My review case is a deep wine red color, which looks understated and quite appropriate. The case colors in pictures online look too bright and gaudy for my taste, but I can say that I am quite happy with the look of the red version in person, at least.

The case is a two-piece affair, clamping together with a little round button on the back. While this is a clever way to hold the two halves of the case together, it unfortunately makes the iPhone much harder to use on a flat surface, as it rocks from side to side as you tap on the screen. My only other complaint is that the case fits maybe a bit too well, in that it can be a real pain to remove it once you have fit your iPhone snugly into it. If you rarely ever need to take your iPhone out of the case this will be more of a positive than a negative for you.

The screen protector was a real surprise for me. I expected it to significantly interfere with the accuracy of my iPhone's screen, but after just a few minutes I forgot that it was even there. It is easy to apply, and easy to forget, which makes it darn near perfect in my opinion.

My wife is currently in the market for a case for her iPhone, and were it not for the rocking on a flat surface problem, we'd almost certainly be getting her the Luxe for her phone. To be honest, nothing else we've seen really stands out as better, so there's still a good chance she'll end up with a Luxe on her phone, even though the rocking is more of an issue for her than it is for me. I plan on going out to get one of these cases for my iPhone 3G.

If you entered one of our snazzy back-to-school giveaways in August you might want to check your email (and junk mail folders) today. We've sent confirmations to everyone who won. Congratulations to you, randomly-selected recipients!

Here's a look at what we gave away:

• Ten licenses of Searchlight, the OS X and iPhone search tool
• Three copies of Bento, a personal database solution
• A big bag of goodies from Dr. Bott
• A Dymo DiscPainter
• 200 premium disc conversions from Ripstyles
• A bunch of games from Freeverse

We'll update this post with the winners once everyone has responded.

So textbooks and gas shot your budget for a shiny-new iPhone 3G? We feel for ya, with your old-and-busted first-gen iPhone, nano, Airport Extreme and shiny new MacBook. What, you don't have all that either? Pity. Tell you what, we'll give you a bunch of accessories for those items instead, OK?

Courtesy of Dr. Bott, you could win an entire bag of cases and other goodies. Just for fun we're throwing in the Dr. Bott bag itself-- because we really think you could use a pick-me-up.

Specifically, the goodies in the bag are:

• Marware's C.E.O. Premiere for iPhone (original, not 3G), a clip-on sideways case for your hip
• Griffin's Streamline sport armband for the latest rev of the iPod nano
• H-Squared's Air Mount, so you can attach an Airport Extreme to your wall
• A copy of the Stationery Pack from Equinux, so your emails to home (begging for cash, no doubt) will look pretty
• A copy of MacFamilyTree, so you can figure out who to email (and beg for cash)

To enter, let us know what your favorite subject or class is (or was). Sorry, this giveaway is limited to the US and everywhere in Canada but Quebec. Good luck!



Da rules:

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment below telling us your favorite subject or class in school.
• The comment must be left before August 19, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter once. Duplicate entries will not be counted.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes:
• Marware's C.E.O. Premiere for iPhone ($35)
• Griffin's Streamline sport armband for the latest rev of the iPod nano ($30)
• H-Squared's Air Mount ($35)
• Stationary Pack from Equinux ($30)
• MacFamilyTree ($50)

Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Whether you've got a significant other who deserves something awesome for Valentine's Day, or you're just celebrating a certain Mac blogger's birthday, here's your chance for some free loot. We're giving away one of each of the following, courtesy Dr. Bott:

• Marware Protection Pack Plus for 15" MacBook Pro
• MacBook BookEndz Docking Station (13")
  
• 12" iBook laptop case (red) from Melissa Beth designs
• One pack of 3 Rubi silicone cases for the iPhone from MCA (black, clear, pink)
  
• One clear Sport Grip for the iPod Touch from Marware

That means five people will win something, so please indicate your preference (trust us, the iBook case won't fit your 17" MBP and I couldn't get it to fit a 13" MacBook) in the comments. Again, to be clear, we've got ONE of each prize, for a total of five prizes, to be given to five individuals-- winning doesn't mean you get everything listed above. Got it? Great. Full details below.

• To enter, leave one comment on this post and validate it (one entry per person, but you may indicate as many preferred prizes as you like in that one comment).
• The comment must be left before February 10, 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Clear Sport Grip ($15), MCA cases ($20), Protection Pack ($35), Melissa Beth 12" case ($150), BookEndz 13" ($160)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

View the prizes here.

This morning I finally shipped out the first round of swag-bag winners from our Talkcasts. Congratulations to those who called in, I hope you enjoy your junk prizes. Unfortunately our pre-Macworld t-shirt winners wound up with their t-shirts handed out at Macworld, and those were the very last of our version 1.0 TUAW t-shirts. Time and budgets will tell if we make more. Instead, I shipped the folks who responded to my winner emails some goodies courtesy Dr. Bott.

And speaking of Dr. Bott, they've been generous enough to provide a big bag (or two) of goodies from the likes of Griffin, Marware, H20 Audio, ifrogz and other cool manufacturers. So be on the lookout for more giveaways-- my wife won't let me keep this stuff lying around the house forever! (Hint: we've got an extra MacBook Air poster hidden away)

I'd also like to thank Equinux for the copies of Coverscout and Mail Stationery Packs, plus some show swag, which is also making its way out to you lucky readers.